Since the health care reform bill was signed into law on March 23, more than 10 Democrats in the House of Representatives have reported threats or harassment over their support for the legislation.
President Barack Obama received multiple threats through Twitter calling for his assassination, while many other lawmakers have received death threats and have been offered 24-hour protection.
Reported offenses include officials receiving faxes bearing the image of a noose and disrespectful voicemails.
Additionally, in Rochester, N.Y., a brick was tossed through the window of an office for that county’s Democratic Party with a note saying, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.”
Similar incidents were reported in Kansas and Virginia.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the FBI and Capitol Police would be advising Democratic lawmakers on how to handle threats to their security.
Republican leaders have also condemned the violence.
House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that violence and threats were unacceptable.
“That’s not the American way,” Boehner said in a press release. “We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change.”
Some Boston University students, however, said they haven’t even noticed the violence, saying they either don’t care about the health care reform bill in general or they do not know anything about the violence threatened as a result.
Despite the fact that a large number of the student population voted for Obama in the last presidential election, many said they didn’t pay much attention to politics either.
Tony Joudi, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that anger regarding health care reform is, to an extent, not something he finds offensive.
“I feel as though America is already in enough debt, and by taking on additional expenditures, more money will be taken away from hard working families and, although not always the case, people who mooch off of others,” Joudi said.
George Greenstreet, also a CAS freshman, is a strong supporter of health care reform and said he feels that threats are immature.
“The bill is far from perfect, but it’s a great step towards equality in this country,” he said. “Sure, it’ll raise taxes, but isn’t it everyone’s right to be healthy?”
Freshman Gabrielle Kur said threatening tactics never help a situation.
“Violence is never the answer,” Kur said. “It only elevates the problem and it solves nothing.”
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